From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Tropes about family members who just really can't get along with each other too well.
Obviously, this is a subcategory of Family Tropes.
open/close all folders
General Family Mess
Main trope:
See also:
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: A big family with all sorts of issues surrounding it.
- Black Sheep: The one member of the family who is met with disdain by their relatives for being different from the rest of the bloodline.
- Cannibal Clan: A family eat other people.
- Dinner and a Show: When a dysfunctional family sits down together for dinner, something's bound to go wrong.
- Domestic Abuse: Someone physically and/or psychologically abuses another family member.
- Family Disunion: Dinner and a Show taken Up to Eleven (involving big events among extended family, such as weddings or funerals).
- The Family That Slays Together: An evil family comprised of murderous criminals.
- Financial Abuse
- Freudian Excuse: It's established that a villain (or a Jerkass) is the way they are because of something bad that happened to them when they were younger. Examples commonly involve domestic abuse or a beloved family member dying in front of them.
- Honor-Related Abuse: Abuse that is committed in order to enforce a twisted code of personal honor/pride, and to punish those who are perceived to be violating it.
- Honor Thy Abuser: A character learns to forgive and respect their abusive relatives, usually their Abusive Parents.
- Inbred and Evil: Being born of incest leads to immorality.
- Incest-ant Admirer: When incestuous attraction is not reciprocated in the slightest.
- In the Blood: Villainy runs in the family.
- It Runs in the Family: Craziness or weirdness runs in the family.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Killing a family member is seen as particularly heinous.
- Royal Inbreeding: When royalty and nobility only marry within their class, it may eventually lead to a smaller gene pool and twisted family trees.
- Royally Screwed Up: Dysfunctional dynasties; royal families who don't get along well.
- Tough Love: Parents treating their children harshly in order to make them better.
- Troubled Abuser: The abuser bullies their family members because they were also abused themselves.
- Villainous Incest: A villain has sex with a blood relative to show how evil and disgusting they are.
- White Sheep: The one decent member of a family otherwise composed of scoundrels.
Lovers and Spouses
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Forcing someone to marry another person whom they'd rather not want to spend the rest of their lives with.
- Awful Wedded Life: Both spouses are miserable together.
- Bastard Boyfriend: A man abuses his girlfriend/wife and is made to look good doing it.
- Bastard Girlfriend: A woman abuses her boyfriend/husband and is made to look good doing it.
- Black Widow: A woman who marries men so she can eventually kill them.
- The Bluebeard: A man who marries women so he can eventually kill them.
- Cuckold: A man who is being cheated on by his partner and probably knows, but can't/won't do much about it.
- A Deadly Affair: An extramarital affair results in the murder of one or more person(s) involved or affected by it.
- Dead Sparks: The couple loved each other once, but now just stay together out of complacency.
- Destructive Romance: A romantic relationship is unambiguously toxic for the people involved (not always outright abusive but still unhealthy).
- Divorce Assets Conflict: A divorcing couple fight over their property.
- Divorce Requires Death: Someone tries to end their marriage by either killing their spouse, or themselves (or both).
- A Family Affair: A character cheats on their spouse with someone their spouse is related to (such as their spouse's sibling).
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: One spouse doesn't want a divorce.
- Gold Digger: Marrying someone just to gain access to their wealth rather than love.
- Happy Marriage Charade: The married couple pretends that they're happy together to throw other people off.
- Henpecked Husband: A submissive husband allows his bossy wife to constantly nag at and order him around.
- Lazy Husband: The husband is very reluctant to do anything his wife asks of him.
- Marital Rape License: The belief that it is okay to force one's wife or husband into having sex, regardless of whether they consent or not.
- Married Too Young: A couple gets married young and faces relationship problems as a consequence of not waiting until they've matured enough.
- The Masochism Tango: A couple who frequently alternate between being affectionate and fighting (essentially Belligerent Sexual Tension, but with the tension already resolved).
- Old Man Marrying a Child: An elderly man marries a young girl.
- Parenting the Husband: The wife caters to every whim of her immature husband, treating him like he was her child.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: A crazy former girlfriend/wife (or boyfriend/husband) out for revenge.
- Romanticized Abuse: Domestic abuse is made to look more attractive than it really is.
- Secret Other Family: A character has a secret second family the other family knew nothing about.
- Serial Spouse: A person has married and divorced multiple times.
- Sexless Marriage: A married couple who don't have sex, which often causes problems in their marriage.
- Shotgun Wedding: When an accidental pregnancy leads to a reluctant (if not forced) marriage.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: Someone plans to kill or has killed their spouse.
- Toilet Seat Divorce: A couple divorce over a trivial reason.
- Unholy Matrimony: Marriage between two evil people.
- Unwanted Spouse: Their spouse is stuck being married to them, even though they don't love or necessarily even like them.
- Your Cheating Heart: Adultery or infidelity; when someone goes behind their partner/spouse's back to have a romantic/sexual affair with another person.
Parents and Offspring
See also:
- Abandoned War Child: Children who were fathered by a disappeared soldier during wartime. They either live with a single mother or perhaps they have become orphaned by her as well.
- Abusive Alien Parents: Extraterrestrials are shown to be worse at raising their offspring than humans are.
- Abusive Parents: Parents who act cold and cruel towards their children.
- Adults Are Useless: Parents are too stupid, apathetic, or oblivious to do anything helpful when their children are in trouble.
- Affair? Blame the Bastard: Taking out your anger from your spouse's infidelity on the bastard child born of said infidelity.
- Alcoholic Parent: Particularly if they are drunk on booze most of the time.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Parents who have a tendency to (accidentally) humiliate their kids in public.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: When it's not exactly obvious if someone's parent(s) are around or not.
- Antagonistic Offspring: A person who antagonizes their parents.
- Archnemesis Dad: Abusive fathers.
- Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity
- Bastard Angst: Children born to unmarried parents can suffer difficult lives for various reasons. May sometimes overlap with Parental Abandonment.
- Bastard Bastard: A person who is a bastard in both senses of the word (i.e. he was born out of wedlock and he's a jerk).
- Betrayal by Offspring: Someone backstabs their parents.
- Bratty Half-Pint: An obnoxious child who may act rude or ungrateful towards their parents (and also their siblings or other family members).
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: A teenage girl who acts rude or ungrateful towards her parents.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Someone tries to avoid making the same mistakes that their parents made while raising their own children.
- Bumbling Dad: The father of the family is a complete moron.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: A child addresses their parents by their given names, often as a sign of disrespect.
- Child by Rape: A child from forced conception.
- Chocolate Baby: A child doesn't quite look like one or both of their parents, suggesting that their real parent is someone their other parent cheated with.
- Daddy Didn't Show: A parent fails to show up for a child's special event.
- Disappeared Dad: A character's mother is present, but not their father.
- Disinherited Child: A parent leaves their child out of their will, ensuring that their child doesn't inherit jack squat when they die.
- Disneyland Dad: Type II; absentee parent tries to buy their offspring's love with expensive gifts rather than show them actual affection.
- Doesn't Know Their Own Child: A parent barely understands anything about their kid's personality.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off: A character (usually a parent) spanks a kid.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: A teenage boy who acts stupid or ungrateful towards his parents.
- Elder Abuse: Someone abuses their parents or other older family members.
- Emancipated Child: A child legally "divorces" themselves from their parents.
- Evil Matriarch: Abusive mothers.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: The parents frown upon their children pursuing interests and goals that they do not see as matching their idea of a proper future.
- Glorified Sperm Donor: When a man abandons the mother of his child soon after impregnating her.
- Hands-Off Parenting: Parents who are very irresponsible when it comes to raising their kids.
- Hates Their Parent: When a child hates or dislikes their parents for some reason.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: A character is shown to have a ludicrously rough childhood for Black Comedy purposes.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: An angsty vampire hates the person who turned them into one (who may be a parental figure, or even their actual parent).
- I Have No Son!: A child gets disowned by their parents.
- Inadequate Inheritor: A child's or heir's worthiness of inheritance is questioned by their elders.
- Jealous Parent: A parent competes with their child for their spouse's attention.
- Junkie Parent: Parents who are addicted to recreational drugs are often shown as being irresponsible.
- Knight Templar Parent: Parents who go to ridiculous extremes to defend their offspring from people and situations that they believe to be harming them.
- Love-Obstructing Parents: The parents disapprove of their child's choice of romantic partner, and so they try to split them up.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child: A child is blamed for their mother's Death by Childbirth.
- Matricide: Killing one's mother.
- Middle Child Syndrome: The middle child is unable to get as much affection or attention as their older and younger siblings.
- Missing Mom: A character's father is present, but not their mother.
- A Mistake Is Born: A child is regarded as a "mistake" (i.e. accidentally and/or regretfully conceived) by one or both parents.
- My Beloved Smother: A mother who is clingy, controlling, and overbearing to their children.
- New Parent Nomenclature Problem: A child is unsure what to call their new step/adoptive/newly discovered parent.
- Not Actually His Child: A man finds out his child is not biologically his.
- Notorious Parent: A parent runs away from their offspring because they are a fugitive criminal wanted by law enforcement.
- Oedipus Complex: Someone has sexual feelings for their mother (or father). Murder may be involved.
- Offing the Offspring: A parent kills their own child or children.
- Overprotective Dad: A father who is controlling and overbearing towards his children (especially teenage daughters).
- Parental Abandonment: One or both of a character's parents are absent from their kid's life, whether due to that parent being deceased, missing, divorced, separated, or even having intentionally abandoned their family. May sometimes overlap with Bastard Angst.
- Parental Favoritism: Parents have one child they like more than the others.
- Parental Incest: Sex between a parent and a child.
- Parental Marriage Veto: They try to discourage their kid from marrying a fiancé(e) whom they dislike.
- Parental Neglect: Parents who tend to ignore their kids' emotional needs, and don't seem to care much about whatever happens to them.
- Parental Title Characterization: What you call your parents indicates your relationship with them.
- Pater Familicide: Someone kills their entire immediate family (spouse and children) and then themselves in a Murder-Suicide.
- Patricide: Killing one's father.
- Pervert Dad: A father sexually molests or rapes his daughter (or son).
- Pushover Parents: Parents who are easily manipulated into letting their children have their way.
- Resentful Guardian: They really regret having to raise a kid.
- Safety Worst
- Self-Made Orphan: Someone murders their own parents.
- Shed the Family Name
- Single Mom Stripper: A prostitute, stripper, or other sex worker does this job in order to feed her child(ren).
- Son of a Whore: Someone born from a prostitute.
- Spoiled Brat: A child who is rude and obnoxious because their parents give them whatever they want, whenever they want.
- Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Parents who are over-protective or too strict with their children simply make them better at hiding secrets.
- Struggling Single Mother: It's much more difficult to raise a child without their father.
- Trophy Child: A child who is treated as a status symbol by their parents more so than a person.
- Troubled Child: Abuse and/or neglect doesn't do wonders for a kid's wellbeing.
- The Un-Favourite: A child who is ignored and neglected by their parents in favor of their siblings.
- Unpleasant Parent Reveal
- Useless Bystander Parent: A parent who does little or nothing to protect their child from abuse by the other parent.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Parents take issue with their son or daughter not conforming to traditional gender stereotypes.
- Wanted a Son Instead: A parent is disappointed when their new child isn't a boy (or more rarely, a girl).
- "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: A father who wishes his son would respect him.
- "Well Done, Son!" Guy: A son who wishes his father would respect him.
- Where Did We Go Wrong?
- Why Are You Not My Son?: When a parent (unfavorably) compares their own child not to their sibling, but to that child's friend.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: When parents are disappointed that their kids failed to live up to their expectations of them.
- Wicked Stepmother: Abusive stepmothers (or stepfathers) mistreating their spouse's biological children from another marriage.
- Wife Husbandry: Adopting a child for the purpose of marrying them when they're old enough.
- You're Not My Father: A character tells a parent/parental figure that they're not their parent.
Brothers and Sisters
- Annoying Younger Sibling: A younger sibling who bothers their older sibling by being annoying.
- Big Brother Attraction
- Big Brother Bully: An older sibling who picks on their younger siblings.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Sex between siblings.
- Cain and Abel: Brothers who don't get along well.
- Cain and Abel and Seth
- Disappointing Older Sibling
- Evil Brunette Twin
- Evil Twin: A wicked twin sibling who antagonizes their brother or sister.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: One sibling is responsible and cares about doing the right thing, while the other one is a lazy slacker who gets into trouble.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Sisters who don't get along well.
- Half-Sibling Angst: The fact that you only share one parent with them makes it more difficult to get along with them.
- Infant Sibling Jealousy: Feeling annoyed that your cute baby brother/sister gets all of your parents' attention.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Older siblings who go extreme lengths to protect their younger siblings.
- Little Sister Heroine
- Sibling Murder: Killing one's own brother or sister.
- Sibling Rivalry: Siblings who don't get along well.
- Spartan Sibling
- Successful Sibling Syndrome
- Twincest: Twins have sex.
Extended Family and Other Relatives
- Clashing Cousins: A conflict between cousins from different sides of the family. May overlap with Feuding Families if the families are big enough.
- Creepy Uncle: An uncle who has an incestuous interest in his niece or nephew.
- Evil Nephew: A wicked nephew/niece who antagonizes their uncle/aunt.
- Evil Uncle: A wicked uncle/aunt who antagonizes their nephew/niece.
- Illegal Guardian: A parental figure/guardian with not-so-benevolent intentions towards the child they're looking after.
- Kissing Cousins: Incest between cousins.
- Meet the In-Laws
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Hostility between a married person and their spouse's relatives.
